Got a car with HKS cam spockets and cams...was trying to confirm TB aligned and have noticed the timing marks seem to be aiming at each other even with the head top, not aiming up like a stock EVO, at TDC..can someone confirm this is where the cam sprocket timing marks should be for setting the TB at TDC #1?
THX,
Craig

 

Is there multiple holes for multiple applications? mine are with the Fidanza, and they will be at 3:00 on an evo, and 12:00 on other DSM's. kinda wierd I know! see if there are other holes for other applications, could be totally normal!

 

Aiming at each other?...can you post pics...?
Normal three legged HKS gears have reference marks at the top...

 

I've got the HKS three legged style, and my timing marks point up, just like the factory cam gears at TDC.

 

Andrew has spoken!! He knows his stuff, and helped me out with my issues! more that once! I have talked to him so much lately, I have a British accent!

 

I got the gears set with the sprocket dowels straight up and she started fine but doesn't idle worth a crap...stalls but pulls nicely on the gas. The cams are both HKS 272's and I have the intake gear retared 4 degrees and the exhaust 6 degrees..any ideas on the timing to get the thing to idle correctly which she did before I messed with the TB ? I set her like a stock EVO with the sprockets centered..zero'd out..and she wouldn't hold an idle and than set her to what I got her supposedly, retarded as above but no go. Is the base timing with the crank sprocket different with the HKS cams?

I thought I knew 4g63's from my Eclipse but this EVO is full of surprises or I have become stupider with age.

Regards,

Craig

 

hks cam gears suck ***..I had some on my honda and the rubber timing belt is stronger than what hks uses as material i guess..dont see how..anyways and started eating away the teeth..now they are sharp..so i had to take them off because they started eating at timing belt...And I love those purple things lol...ill post pics tonight of them..

 

where you running with the cam gear cover off? If so, there's your problem.

 

I think my poor idle is probably due to a slightly tweaked valve judging by the vacuum gauge dancing around at idle. High lift cams...TB off by 3 teeth...all it takes I guess.

 

Geeeeze, my 272's were set at -2/-2, and the 280's are at 0/0. no wonder the car is idling like crap! I personally would get them re-set!

 

Unfortunately, the lack of idle with them set at 0/0 and 4/6 was intermingled with my setting them at your in-between settings without any improvement in idle quality. The car idled quite nicely for me prior to my head/TB dickering at the -4/-6 settings. As mentioned above, my manifold vacuum gauge seems to suggest a sticking valve and some plug isolation manuvers seems to suggest something amiss with cylinder #3. I won't give the particulars out of embarrassment at my stupidity but I fear I slightly bent a valve , probably just one. I'll be throwing a compression tester on the cylinders tomorrow to confirm.

I suspect my piston dynamics with the 2.3 stroker crank with faster piston speed may account for my cam settings favoring larger retard than your -2/-2.

I will removing the head I fear if only to replace the stock head gasket with a Cometic and also to probably replace a valve in all liklihood.

Thanks again for the feedback,

Craig

 

Good luck Craig, hope you get it worked out. I didnt read the inbetween posts, sorry. That would have explained alot.

 

Took the head off yesterday...couldn't tell if the head gasket has a leak since it had that copper sealant sprayed all over it. Will clean and check. The head/block seam has an obvious ooze. Poor idle was secondary to all 8 intake valves (exh. fine) having been slightly bent with corresponding bright spots on the pistons.

My theory is that the "tuner" got a little crazy with the adjustable cam sprocket and over retarded the timing on the intake only to the point where the combo of a moderately high lift cam, milled head and retarded intake cam (-12 ?) caused just a taste of touch. May explain the tuner's comment which made little sense to me about having "missed" a shift during the Dyno session as a bit of laying groundwork for the engine being subsequently "off".

BTW, the O-ring process that AMS did on the short block is a groove less than 1mm in width with a copper inlay which now is flush with the surface so inserting a new copper wire would be needed to achieve the original spec's. The fineness of the copper strip doesn't give me much confidence that this would stand up to much more stress than a normal metal head gasket, IMHO. This is certainly the thinness O-ring I have seen and unlike the one's I have seen on competition Porsches, C5 or C6's, or BMW's. Probably dictated by the narrowness of the space between adjoining cylinder bores. I wouldn't jump to add this $100+ detail to your block...use it for one of those ridiculously expensive HKS HP metal gaskets particularly since the O-ring's look like "one use" only options.

Craig